Egypt refers nine to court over spying for Israel

Cairo, June 27 (IANS) Egypt's public prosecutor referred nine people, including six foreigners, to the criminal court Wednesday for allegedly spying for Israel, a media report said.

Talaat Abdullah ordered three Egyptians and six Israelis including four officers at the Israeli directorate of military intelligence to the court. But it wasn't clear whether all of them were in the country or on trial in absentia, Xinhua reported.

Investigations by security prosecutor revealed that three Egyptians, all residents of Rafah in North Sinai, had acted with the Israeli officers and two Israeli Arabs to spy on Egypt.

"The defendants have passed information to Israeli military intelligence services to harm Egypt's national security and the country's higher interests," the report said.

On June 15, Egypt detained a man for spying for Israeli Mossad. The prosecution said the defendant, an employee for a private company, realised earlier that his link to Mossad had been monitored, so he "confessed" to the Egyptian intelligence in early 2012, hoping that Egyptian authorities would drop charges against him.